Congress is poised to pass two bills fighting Iran’s ballistic missile program and Hezbollah’s finances. We must ensure they are passed.

The House of Representatives is slated on Wednesday to consider and vote on two important pieces of legislation that are crucial to Israel’s security.

The bills address Iran’s dangerous aggression in the Middle East and that of its terrorist proxy, Hezbollah.

The first bill, the Iran Ballistic Missiles and International Sanctions Enforcement Act (H.R. 1698), expands sanctions against Iran’s illicit ballistic missile program and its aggressive behavior in the region. The bill was introduced by Congressmen Ed Royce (R-CA), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Steny Hoyer (D-MD).

The second bill, the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Amendments Act of 2017 (H.R. 3329), is an expansion of existing legislation and targets foreign governments that knowingly provide financial support to Hezbollah as well as to foreign individuals or companies that aid its fundraising or recruitment activities.

The legislation, submitted by Congressmen Ed Royce and Eliot Engel, seeks to hit Hezbollah in its pocket and cut off the flow of resources to the Iranian-backed terror group.

Iran’s ballistic missile program is a direct threat to Israel, and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah has one purpose only – to destroy the Jewish state.

The passage of these bills would deal a meaningful blow to terrorism while contributing to Israel’s security as well as to that of the Middle East and the entire world.

It is crucial that these bills receive resounding bipartisan support. Urge your representative to support both bills.

Alerting all parents! Additional controversial content will be included in the Disney Channel show “Andi Mack” during season two, premiering Friday, October 27, at 8:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. CT. 1MM earlier warned parents this program is not suitable for a kids’ network, and now the show is introducing the network’s first gay character.

In a first for the Disney Channel, the show “Andi Mack” will spend an hour focusing on one of the main characters coming out as gay. Young teen Cyrus Goodman is a key member in the program’s cast. During the season two premiere, he’ll make Disney Channel history as he grapples with his feelings for another boy. And in subsequent episodes, he’ll work these feelings out along with having a new girlfriend.

According to an article in TV Line, Disney Channel’s upcoming series “Andi Mack” will be Disney Channel’s “most adult show yet.” This season’s premiere episode was also screened in advance for organizations like Common Sense Media, GLAAD, and PFLAG. Disney Channel claims the aim was to craft a story that maintains its signature brand of age-appropriate storytelling while building a narrative of inclusion and kindness.

The Walt Disney company also released a statement regarding “Andi Mack‘s” stories and characters, writing, “The Disney brand has always been inclusive, with stories that reflect acceptance and tolerance and celebrate the differences that make our characters uniquely wonderful in their own way. We constantly strive to live up to that legacy by continuing to create and share compelling storylines from our studios and media networks that entertain with inspirational and aspirational themes and reflect the incredibly rich diversity of the human experience. Our stories are timeless because they speak to the heart; our characters appeal to children across gender, ability, and experience because they’re defined by kindness, loyalty, humor, courage, wit, and other traits that make a good friend. Disney remains committed to continuing to create characters that are accessible and related to all children.”

Why? What is wrong with having family-friendly content that is acceptable for all ages or even leaving a couple of networks solely for children’s entertainment? Disney Channel is gradually becoming another Freeform Network. As one of only a few channels catering to children, it cannot possibly be that Disney Channel has a financial need for more adult viewers.

By choosing to abandon family-friendly entertainment, Disney’s inexplicable choice to move toward more “adult” fare may ultimately prove to be a huge mistake.

Disney’s first gay kiss aired earlier this year on Disney XD’s animated series “Star vs. the Forces of Evil.” The scene took place at a concert where the band played a romantic tune that inspired many couples in the audience to kiss; a few of those couples — none of which involved a main character — were same sex.

The Disney Channel is deliberately choosing to “move forward” and promote adult content to children. By choosing to move in the direction of more “adult” stories and content, the Disney Channel – and the entire Disney media empire – may be choosing to sacrifice something far more precious… children’s innocence.

Congress will consider whether to stop the use of federal tax-exempt bonds to finance construction of abortion clinics. Rep. Robert Pittenger, a Republican from North Carolina, introduced the bill on Wednesday.

The need for this bill became apparent in recent years, as states, counties and cities issued federally tax-free infrastructure bonds for the purpose of building abortion clinics.

For example, in 2012, New York City issued a tax-free, $15 million bond for renovation of Planned Parenthood’s national headquarters. Planned Parenthood has also been the beneficiary of tax-free bonds for clinics in Florida, Illinois and Massachusetts.

Rep. Pittenger, in a speech on the House floor this week, explained how A well-intended program is being leveraged by Planned Parenthood.

“These tax-free bonds are intended to finance schools, hospitals and infrastructure, not abortion clinics,” he said. “This legislation applies the spirit of the Hyde Amendment to the tax code, by preventing tax-free bonds from going to abortion providers.”

Pittenger’s bill already has early momentum, as a bipartisan group of more than 50 congressmen have joined in as co-sponsors.

Family Policy Alliance and 36 of our state allies signed on in support of the No Abortion Bonds Act this week.

“We are grateful for Rep. Pittenger’s leadership in advancing legislation that prioritizes the value of human life, life-affirming investments in women’s health, and good stewardship of taxpayer dollars,” said Autumn Leva, Director of Public Policy and Communications at Family Policy Alliance. “Planned Parenthood is a billion-dollar organization. In a time of massive federal deficits, reasonable people on both sides of the abortion debate should be able to agree that subsidizing this abortion giant is not a national priority.”

Part 13: A Historical Research of the Ten Tribes Scattered Into the Nations

Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army invaded Israel. They had reduced King Solomon’s Temple to ashes, and had taken many of the Jewish people back to Babylon as captives. By this time some 200 years earlier the bulk of the the Northern Ten Tribes were also taken into captivity, and this is the condition that Ezekiel is in. The nation of Israel is dead, but… HaShem has a vision for Ezekiel.

Ezekiel is carried to a valley full of very dry bones. These bones are scattered everywhere… very white… and very very dry. Bones all over the place… scattered by the wild animals so that there is nothing but miscellaneous bones as far as the eye can see. Bones are not grouped together, they are mixed, cracked and broken; it is a surface-graveyard in a total chaotic state as far as the eye can see. A hopeless situation…

For Ezekiel, this is a vision of the nation of Israel, not only for the House of Judah, but also for the House of Israel (Ephraim/Joseph).

Remarkably, HaShem instructs Ezekiel to prophesy that these scattered, dead, dry bones will live, a vivid picture of the Twelve Tribes scattered into the nations for 2700 years that will come alive in the last days!

In this research section we will venture into the prophecies in the making and compare them with the actual events taking place in the world.

The headings in this part cover the following areas:

Was Israel Born in a Day?Israelites Coming Out of the Land of the North and All Countries Where They Had Been BanishedWhat Part Does the Land Play in the ‘Redemption Plan’?The Shepheard is Calling His PeopleWhat Must Ephraim Do?How Must We Become One Entity?Ezekiel’s Two Sticks are Becoming One – The Return of the ShechinahThe Returning of the Scattered Ten Tribes of IsraelIs The House of Israel in the Process of Returning?Will King Solomon’s Empire Be Restored?Will Many Nations be Joined With HaShem?Is There Concrete Proof of the Tribes Starting Coming Home?Ephraim’s Area of Settling in the LandConclusion

1 Timothy 2:1 “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,” (New King James Version)

1 Timothy 4:5“for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” (New King James Version)

“Intercession” is exactly the same Greek word as is translated “prayer” in I Timothy 4:5. It has an interesting etymology that instructs us on an important aspect of prayer. The word, a verb, is entugchanein.

It began to appear in Greek centuries before Christ, meaning simply “to meet a person,” as if a person would meet another along the way. However, through the centuries, the word took on a somewhat different meaning. Eventually, it meant, not just “to meet,” but “to meet and converse.” This is natural because, if a person falls in with another along the way, he usually does not ignore the other but strikes up a conversation.

Then, as time went by, it began to take on yet a different meaning: “to have intimate fellowship with the person.” To this point, the word describes how to have a right approach to God. In practical fact, it illustrates that we are not conversing with God from a distance. We are so intimately associated with Him that we are His children. This word is describing an intimate family relationship. God is not way off on the top of a mountain somewhere. Even as early as Deuteronomy 30:14, He says, “The word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart”!

If we are going to have the right kind of fellowship and relationship with God in prayer, we have to understand that we are in His very presence. Looking at this humanly and physically, this is how He can rub off on us. We are in His fellowship, in His presence. He is not far off. When Christ gave His life for us, the veil of the Temple was torn from top to bottom, symbolizing that access to God was completely open to Him, and now we have this same access to the Father through Christ. We are right before His throne when we are talking to Him.

However, entugchanein continued to change. The change shows up in the noun form of the word, enteuxis, meaning “a petition to a king.” It can be used in the sense of the king summoning someone into his presence or of someone presenting a request to the king. Putting these together, it sugests that we have “intimate access to petition the king.” We do not have intimate fellowship with just anybody, but to the King of all the universe!

We have both privilege and power in prayer. This is where the concept “the power of prayer” comes from. Because we have the privilege to come before the King in intimate fellowship, we have access to His power. It is not that prayer itself has the power, but that we have access to the One who has the power.

This means we have to be extra careful what we ask God: He may give us what we ask, and we will be sorry. Mighty forces can be unleashed when we ask God for things. God’s people have a responsibility to ask of Him things that are according to His will.

As a tool, prayer is to be used to accomplish a wide variety of things within God’s purpose. It is to be used in regard to the things of this life. God wants us to pray about this life, as in supplying our daily need. However, He will primarily use it, not for this life, but for His eternal purpose, reproducing Himself and creating His holiness in us. His purpose is in preparing us for the Kingdom of God.

Names Mean Things – Part 3byBrad Scott

In our last teaching we covered the name YHVH. Names are nouns, and although virtually every Hebrew noun comes from a verb, when it becomes a noun it will be spelled differently. As a matter of fact, people’s names are really not subject to rigid rules. Although it is traditional for eastern cultures to pass family names down from one generation to the next, there are plenty of variant spellings of those names. Names are also given to express an action or event that was taking place at the time of a child’s birth. Most of the names in the scriptures come forth from this tradition.

Nouns come in two fundamental forms. A proper noun and a common noun. Nouns are people, places, and things. Proper nouns are those words that can be understood without an article. A few examples of proper nouns are YHVH, Moses, Jerusalem, Mt. Sinai, Kleenex, Coca-cola, Miss America, and O.J. These are words that do not require an ‘a’ or ‘the’ in front of them. We do not have to say the Kleenex or a Miss America or the O.J. Common nouns are king, mountain, office, car, husband, wife or pencil. YHVH is a proper noun. Names of people are proper nouns. They require no articles to preceed them. Proper nouns, with few exceptions, are to be transliterated. Take for instance the Hebrew word Mattityahu (Divre HaYamim Aleph 15:18). This name is a proper noun, it should be transliterated. So this name in Greek is Maththaion. In English it is Matthew. In Spanish and Italian it is Mateo. In Dutch it is Matteus. In Czech it is Matous. In Vietnamese it is Mathio. This is the rule of linguistics with few exceptions. For some reason, most western cultures do not have a problem turning the Hebrew common noun satan into a proper noun. In Greek, it is satana. In Russian and Spanish it is satanas. In Vietnamese it is satan. In Latin it is satanae, and in Italian it is satana. Yet for some reason western cultures take the PROPER noun YHVH and make it the common noun Lord. So the enemy’s name we turn from common to proper and our Father’s name we turn from proper to common. Hmmmmm.

When you see LORD spelled out in all capital letters in your King James Bible, you are looking at a translation of a proper noun. YHVH is our Creator’s name. You DO NOT translate it. You transliterate it into the available sounds in other alphabets. The English word LORD, in this case, is neither a translation or a transliteration. Remember that translation is closest in meaning and transliteration is closest in sound. The word LORD is in no way the meaning or the sound of YHVH. So why did they replace YHVH with LORD? – out of deference to Rabbinical thought that no one is to pronounce the ineffable name of the Creator. So at best, they bowed to political pressure.

There are hundreds of occurrences of the word Lord in our English Bibles as well. If you will, a capital L and small case ‘ord’. When you see this in the text it is a translation of the Hebrew word adonay. In this form the word should have been transliterated, once again, and not translated. It is a proper noun. The King James text should read Adonay, or Adonai and not Lord. The ancient or pictographic meaning of adonay is the hand or work of the first judge. The aleph is the first letter with the meaning of power and strength. The dalet and nun are the letters for judge and the yod is, of course, the letter for the closed hand or the hand that works, makes, forms, and creates. So, instead of properly transliterating this word, they translated it into the Greek word kuriosand into the English word Lord. We must keep in mind that the King James translators had the Hebrew and Greek text of the Old Testament to draw from. The words LORD, Lord, and lord in our Old Testaments are all translations of the Greek word kurios. This is the word used in the Septuagint to replace YHVH, ‘Adonay and ‘adon. The Greek word kurios is a common noun. It was originally only an adjective in Greek. No where is it used as an adjective in the scriptures, for it is used only as a noun (see Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament pg. 1041). In ancient Greek, this word was used as the lawful owner of a slave. It means having power over something. Since the Greek uses the same word to express YHVH, ‘Adonay and ‘adon, it is the Hebrew manuscripts and the context that must be sought in order to distingiush who is being addressed, for Hebrew makes a distinction between them. When referring to the Creator, Master and King of the universe, the word YHVH or ‘Adonay should be used.

When you see the word lord all in small case letters used in your English Bible, this is a correct translation of the common noun ‘adon. This word still means master or superior, but is used to express earthy masters and a respectful term for the leader of a household, a business or governing authority. The word in Hebrew still means a ‘first judge’, but with respect to those outside of the Creator. Hebrew makes this distinction, Greek and English do not. The Greek kurios is used to express YHVH, a child’s father, a wife’s husband, a nasty boss, a political leader, Zeus, Tammuz, Ishtar, Mithras or any other number of gods and deities.

Many of you have probably been told that when using the English word LORD, Lord or lord, that you are actually calling on baal, and that ba’al means lord. Well, not exactly. The Hebrew word ba’al refers to one who rules or masters. So you can see that the meaning is akin to the word ‘adonay. It is a perfectly good Hebrew word that generally is used to refer to a husband or a married man. It is made up of the letters bet, ayin and lamed. These letters mean the leader of the house who watches. This is why it is used to refer to a husband in a marriage. It is used twice of the Creator Himself.

Yesha’yahu [Isaiah] 54:5“For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.”

Yirmeyahu [Jeremiah] 3:14“Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:”

If you look this word up in one of our americanized Hebrew lexicons, you will find that one of the main definitions is lord. This is because the editors of the lexicon chose the English word ‘lord’ to have the closest meaning to this Hebrew word. Because ba’alis a common noun, it must be translated. But this does not mean that ba’al means lord. Ba’al means what it means. Because some culture chose to use this word to refer to their gods or lords, does not mean that in Hebrew ba’al means lord. Assuming a belief in Hebrew being the best modern representation of the first proto-semitic language, it is easily understandable how the first languages to break off and separate in the beginning would have common syllabary’s and alphabets. In turning away from the one God of creation, the scattered people after the tower of Babel would begin to worship other beings or predominantly inanimate objects. The names of these objects of worship would naturally be similar to many names and words of the original tongue. Because a group of people called the name of their pagan god ba’al, does not make the Hebrew word ba’al a pagan word. There are many gods in various cultures scattered throughout the world who have names very familiar in Hebrew. Jah, Yaw, Amun, Set, Sobek, Shiva, Allah, Adonis, Ashur, Shamash, Gaal, Pah, Dagon and Yam are but a few.

From a strictly linguistic (how language works) point of view, the words YHVH and Adonay are proper nouns and should be transliterated and pronounced as such. The common nouns ‘adon and ‘elohiym should be translated. The translation of ‘elohiymto ‘God’ will be covered in our next time together. I have also chosen to write the rest of this series based upon the questions I will get on what I have written so far. Please be patient with me concerning keeping up with the postings on the web site. I am not whining mind you, for I am a most fortunate and blessed man. But through the multiple mediums we are working with right now, I am dancing as fast as I can. Blessings to you.